dChat

Open source Discord/forum hybrid built for public-readable communities and member-only interaction.

Current release baseline: v1.3

Live example:

• https://forum.dek.cx/

What dChat is

dChat is designed as a 2026-style forum shell with Discord-familiar navigation, live chatroom behavior, and classic thread depth. Guests can read the whole community. Signed-up users can post, reply, react, chat in real time, customize profiles, and use direct messages without the interface turning into a cluttered admin maze.

Core feature set

Forum and thread features

• Public-readable categories, topics, threads, and replies
• Member-only posting, replying, editing, voting, and profile customization
• Nested forum replies with connected conversation flow
• Thread tags, sticky threads, announcements, and thread locking
• Direct post permalinks for linking to a specific reply inside a thread
• @mentions with mention notifications and unread highlighting
• Image-led threads and inline image previews
• Markdown composer with formatting tools
• Search across the forum surface

Live category chatrooms

• Every category can act as a live chatroom
• Real-time chatroom updates for new messages
• Latest three related topics pinned at the top of each room
• Chained message layout so uninterrupted conversation reads naturally
• Quote reply and direct reply actions on chat messages
• Image uploads inside chatrooms
• Optional KLIPY GIF picker integration
• Participant rail for active room members

Profiles, identity, and community

• Clickable Discord-style user popup cards
• Avatars, bios, social links, and richer profile pages
• Live forum stats including posts, topics, and reputation
• Recent topics and replies on profile surfaces
• Online/offline presence indicators
• Role badges for member, moderator, and admin users

Direct messages and notifications

• User-to-user direct messages
• Merged inbox for DMs, mentions, and notification activity
• Live unread badge updates without a full page refresh
• Markdown, embeds, and multiple image uploads in DMs
• Per-conversation DM icons in the guild rail
• Per-user DM privacy controls

Moderation and admin tools

• Admin and moderator role permissions
• Reports queue and moderation logs
• Soft delete and restore flows
• Warn actions with reputation penalties
• Permanent thread nuking for admins
• Attachment review and removal tools
• Branding, theme, footer link, and color controls from admin

Safety, privacy, and legal

• Built-in math CAPTCHA with no external dependency
• Optional email verification, off by default
• Sanitized markdown and controlled embed handling
• Restricted image upload types and file size limits
• External link warning gate
• GDPR export and account/content deletion flows
• Terms, privacy, and cookie policy pages included by default

Setup and deployment

• First-run setup wizard
• First registered account becomes the initial admin
• User id=1 email becomes the default public legal contact
• Minimal default stack with no required worker process
• Docker Compose support for Linux, macOS, and Windows
• Optional Redis and Caddy profile for fuller production setups

Default stack

The default install is intentionally small:

• Django
• PostgreSQL
• WhiteNoise for static assets
• Docker Compose

Optional full profile:

• Redis for shared cache
• Caddy for reverse proxy and TLS termination

There is no required worker process in the default release.

Tracked source footprint:

• 134 tracked files
• about 0.49 MB before dependencies, media, and generated static output

Why it stays lightweight

• Django handles the full app surface instead of splitting the product into multiple services
• WhiteNoise serves static assets in the default setup
• Redis is optional, not required
• GIF search is optional, not hard-wired
• The default install path stays close to app + database, which makes self-hosting simpler

Quick start

Linux/macOS:

cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d --build

PowerShell:

Copy-Item .env.example .env
docker compose up -d --build

Open http://localhost:8000 and complete /setup.

Optional full profile:

docker compose --profile full up -d --build

That adds Redis and Caddy. With the full profile, the app is served on http://localhost and https://localhost.

First-run behavior

• If no users exist, dChat redirects to /setup
• The first created account becomes the initial admin
• The first created account is also user id=1
• The email on user id=1 is used as the default public legal contact on the Terms, Privacy, and Cookies pages

Choose that first email accordingly.

Docs

Runtime pages:

• Changelog: /changelog/
• Docs: /docs/readme/, /docs/install/, /docs/faq/

Notes

• Guest users can read but cannot interact
• Uploads are limited to PNG, JPEG, and GIF up to 8 MB
• Markdown is sanitized
• Video upload is disabled
• Redis cache and metrics are opt-in
• KLIPY GIF search stays disabled until the operator adds an API key in Site Branding

License

MIT. See LICENSE.